Thanks to NCIS: Origins, the CBS franchise now has a lot of opportunities to revisit the past. When it first began, NCIS focused mainly on its procedural elements, with each episode devoted to a new case. Over time, though, the series became more character-centric, and its spinoffs have followed suit. While the ongoing NCIS: Sydney still champions the tried-and-true episodic format, Origins and NCIS: Tony & Ziva have dug into the people fans have come to know and love over the years.
In particular, Origins, a prequel following Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ (Austin Stowell) early years with NIS, has explored a great deal of the history that makes up the flagship’s lore. In just a season and a half, it has introduced the younger versions of several popular NCIS characters, from Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid) to Diane (Kathleen Kenny). Each familiar face plays a hand in Gibbs’ story, shaping him into the steely-eyed leader played by Mark Harmon. Now, the CBS show is bringing in three more people significant to his journey, including one who can fill in some pivotal details.
‘NCIS: Origins’ Season 2 Will Introduce the Fed Five and Special Agent Dan McClane
The two-part episode “Crescent City” in NCIS Season 11 functioned as a backdoor pilot for the NCIS: New Orleans spinoff and introduced a group known as the Fed Five. Established as a task force that tackled significant cases in the ’90s, they gained prominence for their work on the Privileged Killer case, led by Agent Dan McClane. Other members of the group included Gibbs, Franks, Felix Betts, and Dwayne Pride, who then went on to lead NCIS: New Orleans. Scott Bakula‘s Pride was introduced in “Crescent City” when he teamed up with Gibbs to solve McClane’s murder, the episode’s inciting incident.
McClane was a mentor to both Gibbs and Pride, as the two men were probies when they got involved with the Fed Five. However, he was far from perfect; the two-parter revealed that McClane let a killer run free in exchange for money and knowingly put an innocent man in prison. Pride especially took this news hard, suggesting he and McClane had a strong working relationship. However, since McClane was the victim, he didn’t have much of a presence on NCIS beyond a memory.
That will change in an upcoming NCIS: Origins Season 2 episode. Per Deadline, Mark Deklin has been cast as the younger version of McClane, while Adam Kulbersh will play Betts, and Shea Buckner is the new Pride. Specific plot details for the installment — which will be Episode 11, airing sometime in the new year — are being kept under wraps, but McClane’s character logline calls him “a highly revered veteran field agent working out of the Panama office who is called in by the Camp Pendleton team to lead a joint task force aimed at stopping a stolen weapons ring.” The show will dig into the events that brought the Fed Five together, nestling the group neatly into the established NCIS timeline.
The ‘NCIS: Origins’ Fed Five Story Can Make McClane a Real Character
Gibbs’ working relationship with Mike Franks has been well established through both NCIS and its prequel. Franks is the one who shaped Gibbs’ career and helped him grow as an agent, and even before Origins started to reveal specific examples, their interactions on NCIS gave a clear impression of their history. Conversely, “Crescent City” seemed to suggest McClane was that for Pride; when McClane’s illegal dealings began to come to light, he lashed out at the people around him, Gibbs included, for disrespecting his memory. He insisted that McClane was a good man.
Everything viewers know about McClane comes from other characters. He never properly appeared onscreen since he was dead before the episode began, limiting how deeply NCIS could explore him. Now, Origins can finally shade in his character and explain how such an upstanding, respected agent could get involved with a cover-up. His personality will become clear, as well as the true nature of his relationships with the other members of the Fed Five.
This, in hindsight, can make the “Crescent City” episodes more impactful. Before, McClane’s murder was emotional simply because of what he meant to Gibbs and Pride, but there wasn’t much beyond that. Now, McClane can make a strong impression on Origins. Knowing he’ll someday make some bad choices and end up dead adds a tragic layer to his story, making his upcoming debut even more exciting. It’s likely he, along with Betts and Pride, could become a recurring figure on the show, thus pulling the prequel closer to the original NCIS usual formula, which has a variety of agents from other teams, branches, and agencies who help out from time to time.
‘NCIS: Origins’ Season 2 Is Making the Same Mistake the Original Show Made Years Ago
It’s a problem the prequel series will need to fix moving forward.
The Fed Five Boosted Gibbs’ Career – but That Raises Some Questions
Perhaps the most surprising element of NCIS: Origins thus far has been seeing how inexperienced Gibbs is as a field agent. On the main show, he’s the unflappable team leader capable of handling confrontations with criminals and interrogations without breaking a sweat. On Origins, he’s still learning everything and is very capable of making mistakes. An ongoing thread in Season 2 has been whether he can handle leading an interrogation; he still has a long way to go in his career.
It’s a fascinating arc for the prequel to follow, but it also makes the Fed Five storyline an odd one. Gibbs is the least experienced member of his team, but somehow, he gets picked to join the task force over his more skilled co-workers. ’90s sexism could explain why Lala (Mariel Molino) doesn’t get picked, but there’s also Randy (Caleb Foote). Franks’ clear fondness for Gibbs and belief in his potential could explain why he brings him onto the task force, but that’s still something that should be explained. It can add a dramatic twist to the team dynamics, all while covering an important part of Gibbs’ career.
The best prequels enhance the events that came before them while telling satisfying stories on their own. Though it’s inevitable that NCIS: Origins will offer up some conflicting details, the Fed Five story could be the perfect place to connect the series to the original NCIS, recontextualize an old case, and put its own, compelling spin on it. Introducing McClane as a proper character and exploring Gibbs’ involvement with the group should be an interesting arc for the prequel to tackle.
- Release Date
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October 14, 2024
- Directors
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Niels Arden Oplev, John Terlesky, Diana Valentine, Edward Ornelas, Hanelle M. Culpepper, Lionel Coleman, Loren Yaconelli, Pete Chatmon, Pamela Romanowsky, Ruben Garcia, Jessica Lowrey
- Writers
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Brendan Fehily
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Kyle Schmid
Special Agent Mike Franks
